friday

Friday Poll: PC sales are down, whose fault is it?

PC shipments aren't what they were, with companies like HP, Dell, and Acer reporting disappointing year-over-year sales for the first quarter of 2011, surprising some, like research firm Gartner.

At the same time, tablet sales are exploding, so it seems easy to blame the fall of PC sales on things like iPads.

But it could also be the economy. It's no secret that right now there just isn't as much money going around as some would like, which can affect the sales of PCs indirectly; when consumers buy less Coke, for example, Coke may put off spending money, which can mean putting off computer upgrades for workers.

We're not saying that's what's caused the falloff in sales, but we're not saying it's the iPad 2 or other tablets (though likely not the Xoom) either. In fact, we're not saying anything, instead we're just giving options. This is the Friday Poll, after all.

So now we must ask: Why do you think PC sales have dipped this last quarter? The iPad 2? Other tablets? The economy in general? Or are we finally at the point when most people now see secondhand computers as a cheaper, good-enough option?

Weigh in by voting in the poll on the left, and if we've missed something, you'll let us know in the comments, won't you?… Read more

Friday Poll: What would you do without the Net?

When I was younger (25), my mother would often take away the power cord to my computer monitor because I was on the Internet too much.

The eventual rule was that I could only use the computer for two hours every day. That eventually lessened my urge to get online and got me spending more time outside.

This week, a 75-year-old woman hunting for scrap metal in Armenia destroyed a portion of the cable that feeds the Internet to her country and neighboring Georgia. Nearly 12 hours passed before the issue was resolved, and it left two countries (and millions of residents) without the Web for hours. One wonders what all those people did with their free time without the ability to check Facebook and Twitter every other minute.

I can't even imagine the Internet completely going out in the U.S. The consequences could be devastating financially, and even the online trolls might have to emerge from the shadowy depths of their basements after a couple of hours. Anonymous wouldn't be so...anonymous anymore. Single-player games would get unprecedented play time.

So how would you react if the Internet went down for nearly half a day? … Read more

Friday Poll: Most April Fool-ish product?

Happy April Fools' Day! Some news outlets love playing jokes on audiences on April 1. The BBC, for example, has a tradition of pulling off great fake news pranks, from spaghetti trees to flying penguins. Their high jinks have become increasingly sophisticated.

Here at Crave, we are, of course, way too mature to inflict any fake news today. But plenty of loony ideas get fed into our Crave news machine, and more than a few recent ones are so silly they beggar belief.

Take Israeli start-up BioExplorers. It has a security screening system that relies on mice to sniff out concealed bombs. Fortunately, we hear the critters have graduated from the Bomb Sniffing Academy for Rodents and are thus highly trained.

Over in Australia, industrial designer Melody Shiue has designed a fetus viewer for expecting parents. Yes, moms strap the gadget on and the magic of ultrasound turns their tummies into windows on the uterus. Apparently this idea won an award of some sort. … Read more

The 404 785: Where it's our so-called MemeMolly (podcast)

The 404 Digest for Episode 785

Our guest today is MemeMolly, who gives us an update on the latest memes, Internet culture, and why nobody can stand the word "viral." Add Molly on Twitter and follow her Tumblr.

Top Dog: one is tough, the other is a dog. Where are they now, featuring Star Wars Kid and Numa Numa Guy? Is Cathymay15 a troll, a genius, or another victim of online bullying? EU proposes right to be forgotten online.… Read more

Friday Poll: Would you go under the robotic knife?

Robots operating on humans. It sounds like something out of "Star Wars" (where Luke was nursed back to health by 2-1B).

But it's here, and according to a study we wrote about this week, robot surgery to remove cancerous prostate glands is safe in the long term and in fact may be more beneficial than traditional surgery. Granted, setups like the da Vinci robot surgical system still require the help of their human overlords, but that doesn't mean they're not a little bit creepy. Some things just take an exclusively human touch.

A robotic mechanic working on my car is OK. I'd let an automaton pick out my daily clothes and even dress me. And Japan might be onto something with its android caregivers for the elderly. But what do you, the readers of Crave, think about robot surgeons? Would you let a robot operate on you? … Read more

Friday Poll: Do nuclear power plants scare you?

Far be it from us to contribute to media-fueled fear, but recent developments in Japan have made some reconsider the safety of nuclear power--or give it more thought than they ever had.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunamis that hit last week damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). The utility has been struggling to prevent a possible meltdown and release of high-level radiation, and the emergency has caused some people to flee Tokyo.

As helicopters took to the skies to douse the Fukushima reactors with water, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Administration raised its severity rating of the crisis from level 4 to level 5 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. That brings it on par with the Three Mile Island accident, which forced an evacuation of thousands and cost an estimated $1 billion to clean up. … Read more

Friday Poll: Why the commotion on iPad 2 Day?

Happy iPad 2 Day. If you're reading this in line at your local Apple store, you're indeed a lucky person. Reports are coming in that certain Apple stores, and even partner stores like AT&T, Verizon, and Best Buy, are seriously understocked, with some in line not expected to walk away with Apple's latest tablet today. That has sparked some interesting entrepreneurship of its own.

A few phone calls around the Seattle area showed all Apple stores stocked, though some smaller partner stores were not. One Craigslist posting apparently already sold out online. This seems to be because Apple didn't accept preorders for the device. The original iPad's launch, though, did include preorders, and things went exceptionally smoothly. From what we're hearing, that's not the case this time.

But why wouldn't Apple allow preorders for one of its hottest releases of the year? We're can't say for sure, but we do have some guesses. We're sure you do, too. Vote in our the poll and elaborate in the comments section. … Read more

Friday Poll: iPad 2's impact on tablet market?

So it's real, it exists, and it'll be here March 11. It's the iPad 2, and while it's missing some features consumers were hoping to see in the next generation of the market-defining Apple tablet, it's still a fairly impressive second act.

One of the things Steve Jobs mentioned a few times when announcing the tablet was that makers of iPad competitors were "flummoxed" in trying to ship an actual rival to the device. Whether that's a fact is a debate for another time, but it does raise an interesting question about how the iPad 2's arrival will affect the tablet market for consumers.

Not everyone has a tablet--at least not yet. And the iPad 2 is attractive, but the features are the same ones competitors had been using to differentiate themselves from Apple's offering, namely cameras, HDMI out, and superfast processors.

Now that the iPad 2 has these features--and actually exists--competitors are perhaps in trouble, and need to act accordingly, as CNET's own David Carnoy argued convincingly this week. But how's this going to change the market for tablet users? … Read more

Friday Poll: How does Thunderbolt strike you?

This week, we got hit by Intel's Thunderbolt, a new high-speed data-connection technology that promises transfer speeds double those of current USB 3.0 and extends that swiftness across several devices simultaneously.

Formerly called Light Peak, the long-awaited technology is available now on Apple's new MacBook Pros, which are shipping with a Thunderbolt port as a standard feature. Yesterday, Intel also revealed more details about when we'll see Thunderbolt in other consumer devices.

Thunderbolt currently runs with a top speed of 10Gbps, though it promises to one day top 100Gbps in data throughput when it moves from copper wire to optical fiber. USB's ubiquity means it's not going anywhere just yet, and Intel has also said it plans to support USB 3.0 in future chipsets alongside Thunderbolt.

Still, all this talk of speed and port consolidation has us wondering just how electrified (if at all) you're feeling about Thunderbolt's official arrival. Will it affect your gadget-buying habits in the near future? Vote in our poll, and be sure to share any additional thoughts in the comments section. … Read more

Friday Poll: Is PS3 hacker ban the right move?

This week Sony announced that it's kicking PlayStation 3 hackers off its PlayStation Network and Qriocity media service--for life. Those deemed offenders by Sony get an e-mail saying the company is aware of their ways and plans to drop the banhammer unless they reformat their PS3's hard drive and reinstall the official, un-jailbroken PS3 firmware.

If a user fails to comply, then the ban is handed down. Users who get bannned get a blue screen telling them they're not allowed on the network, as well as an e-mail explaining why.

So far there's no word on whether those who are banned can somehow reconnect their machines to Sony's online services (and we're hoping there's a way, or there may be a glut of network-less PS3s on Craigslist in the near future).

Sony's not alone; Microsoft enacted similar measures a couple of years ago to keep modded Xboxes off of its Live network, and there was a backlash. Now, though, it seems that banning console hackers is the norm. But we have to ask, in your view is Sony's latest move to thwart breaches of its official policy fair?

Opinions on the matter, of course, are varied and passionate. If the poll answers don't cover yours, please elaborate in the comments section. … Read more